Astronomical images occasionally pop up on coins, from a comet on a Roman issue marking the ascension of Julius Caesar’s soul, to the Star of David on Moroccan money of the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, to the moon landing commemorated on the reverse of Eisenhower and Anthony dollars. You might imagine the silver piece shown here is a Medieval European coin displaying one of the Three Wise Men following the Star of Bethlehem – but that’s not exactly right.
The Bible’s sole mention of the